RtFC Reference

control.pl

No command line options or environment variables needed.

corr.pl <vexsched> [<vexsched> ... ]

-control
Name of host running control.pl (default is $RTFC_CONTROL)
-nocorr
Don't attempt to connect to fringe checker interface (for debugging)
-search Run in search mode - writing delays and SNR for each baseline to a file. No plotting
-nthread Number of DIFX threads to run. Default 1. Set to 1 less than number of CPU Cores of less if running RtFC on a single machine
-corr Host to run DIFX "Core" process. Default localhost

The following environment variables can be used (instead of command line options)

RTFC_CONTROL
Sets default for -control
RTFC_EOP Optional, defaults to $HOME/.eops
RTFC_CORRHOST Optional, defaults to localhost
RTFC_NTHREAD Optional, defaults to 1

Normal usage would be to run corr.pl from a directory which is writable and visible to the software correlator.

source setup.csh
> corr.pl vt001.vex

Each fringe check is put in a subdirectory named with the time UT of the integration.

obs.pl

-control
Name of host running control.pl (default $RTFC_CONTROL)
-correlator
Name of host running fringe checker interface (default localhost then $RTFC_CORRELATOR))
-antname <name>
Text string of antenna name (e.g. "Parkes 64m")
-antid <id>
Antenna id code. Should be the same as VLBA (Walker) Sched users (e.g. Pa)
-default <path>
Directory to write temporary friles to before transfer (default is local directory)
-path <path>
Alias for -default
-swapped
IFPs on DAS are swapped (will fix before transferring data)
-force <mode>
Force particular compression mode before transfer (needed if different setup at each observatory
-invert Invert spectrum

The following environment variables can be used (instead of command line options)

RTFC_CONTROL
Sets default for -control
RTFC_CORRELATOR
Sets default for -correlator
RTFC_ANTNAME

RTFC_ANTID


obs.pl is run on the LBADR recorder. It needs to be run from a writable directory because it creates a temporary file on disk before transferring it across the network. By default it looks for VSIB data in the current directory. If obs.pl is not run from this directory (because it is not writable for example), use the -path option to specify where vsib_record is writing the data. It uses vsipack to slice and dice the vsib data.

source setup.csh
#setenv RTFC_CONTROL green.ssi.swin.edu.au
#setenv RTFC_CORRELATOR green.ssi.swin.edu.au
#setenv RTFC_ANTNAME "Parkes 64m"
#setenv RTFC_ANTID Pa
obs.pl

ui.pl

-control
Name of host running control.pl (defaults to $RTFC_CONTROL)
-config
Name of optional config file to pre-set variables (defaults to $RTFC_CONFIG then ~/.config if it exists)

The following environment variables can be used (instead of command line options)

RTFC_CONTROL
Sets default for -control
RTFC_CONFIG
Sets default for -config

ui.pl has a command line interface of the keyword value type, with matching is supported. Variables can be set which are sent to the correlator when a fringe check is made and there are various commands which can be run. To see the current value of a variable, just type the variable name with no value.

Commands

quit
Exits the interface
exit
Exits the interface
observatories
List connected observatories
disable <antid> [antid...]
Disable antenna "antid". This data will not be transfered from this
observatory on the next fringe check
enable <antid> [antid...]
Re-enable a previously enabled antenna
offset <antid> <value>
Set the delay offset for antenna "antid" in microseconds.
secoffset <antid> <value> Add (or subtract) integral second offsetss for "antid"
rate <antid> <value>
Set the clock rate for the specifed antenna (may not work)
grab <hh:mm:ss>
Initiate a fringe check. "integration" seconds of data are transferred starting at
UT time hh:mm:ss. If "mode" is set to a value other than xxxx, only a
sub-selection of the recorded channels are transfered. Data is transferred from
all enabled antennas.
recorr <hh:mm:ss>
Recorrelate the enabled antennas for a time which has already been "grabbed"
readfile <file> Read commands/variables from an external file
Variables

year
Year of observation. Defaults to current year
day
Day of month of observation. Defaults to current day
month
Month of observation. Defaults to current month.
dayno
Dayno of observation. Defaults to current (updating dayno updates
day & month and vice versa).
integration
Length (in seconds) of integration to use on the next fringe check
(can be fractional).
mode
Compression mode to use when transferring data. Defaults to xxxx which transfers
all four DAS bands. To transfer only a selection set the appropriate value to x to
transfer the band or o not to (zero or Oh). For example ooox will only transfer the
first band from the DAS and oxox will transfer both polarizations for a single
frequency for a "VSOP" mode.
nchan
Number of channels to correlate data with
wait <time> Force wait (in seconds)  time seconds after wall clock for grabs in the future. Default 5sec
past <0/1> Allow grab commands for times in the past (default 1/true)

Normal usage would be to run corr.pl from a directory which is writable and visible to the software correlator.

source setup.csh
#setenv RTFC_CONTROL localhost
#setenv RTFC_CONFIG vt0002.config
ui.pl

Dependencies

Sourcing setup.csh script sets up the users environment to use required path, libraries and modules.

CLI.pm
Used by ui.pl to for the command line interface
Astro perl
Used by all the perl programs for general astronomical calculations
Astro::Vex
Used by corr.pl to parse the vex file
RtFC.pm
Common code for the system (messages, constants etc)
vex.so
Goddard vex parser
vsipack
Binary program to pack the data to be transferred